Category Archives: Military

MV CLEMATIS – An ideal floating bach

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MV CLEMATIS – An ideal floating bach

WW readers will be familiar with my views on how compared to the price of waterfront property these days, you can buy a classic wooden vessel for a fraction of the cost, that offers the same benefits + more.

Clematis at 45’ is one such vessel, launched in 1939 & built of kauri by Miller and Tonnage Ship Builders in Port Chalmers for J. Falconer & Sons of Timaru.

Her past has seen her serve with the New Zealand Maritime Department, initially in the NZ Navy during WWII & with the various other ad hoc parties until 1995. She was the only vessel still attached to the navy, serving from WWII until c.1995. She was seconded to the US Navy during WWII & during this period she was refitted on three occasions and even given a copper bottom by the Americans for her use in the Pacific Islands. She was later a training boat for the Maritime Department and Ministry of Fisheries.

She was eventually sold to Christchurch businessman, Bryan Mullaly, in 1995, who based her in Picton. Later use saw her working for a time in Lyttleton as a whale watch boat. Back then (c.1995) she was powered by an Isuzu truck / bus engine, converted to marine use, this replaced a Gardner diesel.

Mullaly sold her to her present owner, Pam Holt in 2003 & Pam brought her up to Coromandel & Gt. Barrier, where Clematis became her floating home. Her large saloon, galley, 2 cabins and spacious covered deck made her ideal for enjoying the spectacular scenery and sea life.

With lots of blue ocean miles under her belt, Clematis is a proven seaworthy boat. Having been in MSA survey (expired) for 18 passengers, 10 to Great Barrier Island.

Pam’s days afloat are over & she is looking for a new custodian for Clematis, whether as a floating bach or a fabulous event venue or for sightseeing cruises.

You will see in the photos that she has recently had a lot of TCL applied & is now offered for sale. Interested parties can contact Pam direct at pamclem@hotmail.com

B/W photos below from launch day.

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Input from Russell Ward

Below are two photos, the colour one is a shot of her on Otago Harbour set to Russell by Ian Mclean –she spent a lot of time in Dunedin –Sea Cadets boat.

The b/w photo shows Clematis on the right in working rig. To her starboard is Aorangi’s bow, Shenendoah and over astern a smattering of the pride of the Auckland fleet. Centre stage, wearing her original funnel in pride is Melodeon.

This pic would be in the ’50s or early ‘60s. A view of the viaduct before it became a eating and watering and posh boat hole 🙂

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Input from Peter Marshall

Actually, Brian Mullaly sold CLEMATIS to me around ’95 and I took her to Lyttelton. She was put into survey as a commercial boat in 2001 but was almost immediately involved in the destruction of the marina at Magazine Bay and was out for the 2001-2002 summer season.
Expertly and comprehensively repaired by Stark Bros., CLEMATIS then operated as Godley Head Dolphin Company watch out of Dampier Bay and around the Banks Peninsula until ’95 when I gave up the cause of making Lyttelton a reasonable environment for chartering and she was bought by a young woodworker from Auckland.
As an added note, she was lent to the Yanks during WW II, who took her up into the Pacific and clad her hull in copper to protect her from worm and used her as shallow water picket duty. The Navy League had her on Otago Harbour for around 30 years, and scads of harbour-dwellers knew the sound of her old Gardner.

Airforce Patrol Craft + An Unusual Car

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AIRFORCE PATROL CRAFT - CLIPPER AUGUST 1939 RNZAF - T COLLINS COLLECTION EX MUSEUM - I.D. PH-2013-7-TC-B731-03

Airforce Patrol Craft

The above photo is dated 1939 & is from the Tudor Collins collection. Only really posted it to have a boat in today story.

15-10-2017 Harold Kidd Input
The launch in the pic is one of the Hubert Scott-Paine 40 footers imported at the beginning of 1940 for TEAL and taken over by the Air Force. W6? Below is a photo of W2.

W2a

But for some serious boat porn, check out James Dreyer’s latest photos of ‘Laughing Lady’ on his Seven Oceans Boatworks Facebook page – click link

The really story is the XK150 Jag below, It was owned by Mr Gardner of Gardner Engines in the UK), Thats him standing alongside it. He re-engined it with a Gardner diesel back in the late1950’s. Rumour has it while the acceleration was not great once off the line she was a flyer 😉 Probably priceless if still around today. Boat & Jag photos ex Ken Ricketts

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15-10-2017 Harold Kidd Input – Lyn Buchanan of John Chambers & Co put a 4 cylinder Gardner in his Packard about 1931. Photo below.

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Mt. Pleasant

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Mt PLEASANT
The below video is of the 1916, 40’ newly –restored Sydney, Australia ferry – Mt Pleasant. Batemans Bay is home for Mt Pleasant.
The video was done to coincide with the 75th anniversary of the sinking of the HMAS Kuttabul in Sydney Harbour on May 31 1942 by Japanese mini-subs. Mt Pleasant was tied up alongside Kuttabul at the time.
Thanks to WoodenBoat & the Bay Post / Moruya Examiner for the heads up re the video.

Stunning restoration 🙂

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Kahu

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KAHU 4 -- HMNZS KAHU AS SEAGOING WORKSHOP c1950s

KAHU - 3 -TOP CONSTRUCTION

KAHU - 5 c2000s

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KAHU

Over the last 10 years every time I have motored past Kahu, when she was moored in the upper reaches of the Waitemata Harbour, just past the Greenhite upper harbour crossing, probably 50>60 times & each time was pleasantly surprised she was still a float. The old girl has had a very checkered past & unfortunately during numerous periods of ownership, all with big plans for her – nothing really came to fruition & she appeared destined for the knackers yard.

I can report that she is now in Whangarei undergoing a major refit. Fingers crossed that this time she returns to her former glory. Ken Ricketts sent me the above old trademe photos that record some of her WWII period, post WWII Navy service (c.1950s), her almost conversion to a passenger ferry (c.early 2000’s), a neglected moored hull.

If there are any woodys that can tell us more about her past & if there was a Northland woody out there that can give a use an update on the project, please do 🙂

01-06-2017 Update ex Geoff Brebner

Photo below of Kahu on her way to Whangarei c.2012

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Interested in reading more on all things Motor Launch, be they serving in the Navy or in civvy hands. (over 250 photo’s and 50+ stories and tech data / links to other ML pages) Check out the link below
 

http://rednaz1958.blogspot.com/2016/03/composite-list-of-hdmls-still-active.html

Rehia – Getting Dressed

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REHIA AT GULF HARBOUR 22.2.17

REHIA BY C WILD @ GULF HARBOUR 19.2.17 - 1

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REHIA – Getting Dressed
Question of the day – did Colin Wild build anything other than pretty boats?
The photos above (ex Ken Ricketts) show the 1939 Colin Wild launch Rehia hauled out recently at Gulf Harbour.
She was getting a fresh coat of paint – having last year had an extensive re-fit at the Horizon yard, her owner had allowed the seams to settle before the hero top coat.
She has to be one of the prettiest launches afloat – perfect from any angle 🙂

The photo below, ex Scott Taylor, show Rehia in her WWII livery. To read more on her, ex Harold Kidd, click this link https://waitematawoodys.com/2014/09/26/rehia-z15/

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Feb 1940 – Whats The Event?

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Feb 1940 – Whats The Event?

Rather an impressive collection of woodys in the above photo, the image is dated Feb 1940 & is from the NZ Herald / Auckland Library collection via Harold Kidd via Lew Redwood.
Harold commented that with that date, the wartime reporting numbers on display would have been recently issued & given the ‘families’ on board there must have still been petrol readily available.
Lew’s thoughts were that gathering could possibly have been to welcome HMS Achilles home.

So woodys can we confirm the event &  ID the boats? – some will be easy & some not – to help I have posted a photo below with each boat numbered 1>9.

AUCKLAND FEB 1940 copy

Amakura II – A Great Story

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AMAKURA WWII

AMAKURA II – A Great Story

I was recently contacted by Michael Shields who relied the story below about the 1936, Colin Wild launch – Amakura II to me – its a get read – enjoy 🙂

“I spent several years on Amakura II, my step father Jim Somner, of Waipu and Somners Transport owned Amakura II for many years in Whangarei and did extensive work on her over that time, , Originally she had an open rear cabin and a single W12 engine, that is a V8 with an extra bank of 4 cylinders in the middle of the V, these same engines were used in landing craft in the second world war, this was removed and changed to twin engines very early on but if you dive down and have a look you can see where the single large prop was and where the very large prop shaft came out of the keel.
When lengthened the rear area was closed in forming a rear cabin.

She sunk during WW2 when after a few too many medicinal rums were consumed and the bow got caught under the wharf as the tide came up, water came up though the head in the bow and she sunk. Being a popular boat and crew everyone pitched in and a huge crane, called “Tiny”, was brought in and Amakura II was lifted up and cleaned up in time, before the Navy, who had heard that one of their boats had sunk came to investigate. The Navy found no evidence of any damage or sinking and everything was in order, although it was noted the rum rations were missing, having been used to pay for the help to clean her up.

She had a large machine gun mounted on her bow during the war and a photo of her in her drab paint hung in the main cabin.

During Jim Somners ownership he modernized and much altered her. He replaced the engines with twin Ford diesels which he then removed the turbos from for improved economy and also installed the custom made large fridge and freezer unit, removed the head from the bow, rejigged the shower and made the the large flying bridge which has now had the roof shortened as it used to extend almost to the rear end of the back cabin. Being a trucker, Jim was very good at getting things ship shape and working well.

I spent many years on her as crew for Jim and have many story’s of that time like when she ran around, caused the delay of the firing of guns at Waitangi Day and parties a board.”

You can read more about her history & past owners here https://waitematawoodys.com/2013/06/03/amakura-ii-2/

Michael – please send in more tales & any photos you might have. Thanks Alan.
(colour photos ex Heather Rose – b/w photo ex Ken Rickets)

Mystery Launches at Thames

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Mystery Thames Boats

Mystery Launches at Thames

The above photo shows a group of ‘settler’ style launches berthed  at the Shortland Wharf in Thames.
Are we able to ID any of them & put a date on the photo? Are the bow numbers fishing registration numbers ? photo ex trademe via Peter Thorpy

Laughing Lady Update

James Dreyer has the foot to the floor on the final stages of the restoration of Laughing Lady & has master craftsman Paul Tingy roped in to help with the final details – the photos below show Paul’s reproduction of the original swim ladder & ‘new’ helm.

MV Mavis

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M.V. MAVIS

Mavis started life back 1918 as a Lanes 40′ trawler. Fast forward to 2004 when she had a  major refit that included –  hull refastened and splined, new decks and cabin, new  John Deere 150HP engine and re-wired. Given that she was recently in MNZ survey, she is very highly spec’ed and looks like she could handle just about anything that mother nature could throw at her. Thanks to Ian McDonald for the heads up re the trademe listing.

Do we know anything more about her past?

09-04-2023 Update ex Alistair Rowe – I spotted Mavis on a mooring in Whatamango Bay – roughly 8km East from Waikawa.- looks to have found a good home.

Yesterdays story on the Classic Launch Parade just got better – more photos ex Jason Prew added, scroll down to view.

1945 – 32′ Classic Kauri Launch

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1945 – 32′ Classic Kauri Launch

Now this launch is for sale & if you had a peek inside you would be very impressed & at the asking price of $78k you might think its a great buy. Well it is a great buy, but I do not think there will be a queue of classic woody buyers lining up – why? because someone has stolen its mojo – the thing that makes a boat special. Her name is Ranui & in another life was called El Alamein, you can read about her here https://waitematawoodys.com/2015/08/03/el-alamein-ranui/
The Readers Digest version of her history is that she was launched in January 1945, specifically for use on Lake Rotoiti to help convalescing returned servicemen from World War II, many in wheelchairs, ease back into civilian life.

Now I have another life outside of being a wooden boat blogger & that is in the world of consumer & B2B marketing – mostly via the digital channels these days – so I can hear you asking yourself whats the relevance of this to today’s story? Well Ranui is in charter & these days calls Lake Taupo home – So wearing my marketing hat, if I owned a boat with the provenance that Ranui / El Alamein has I would be doing two things:-
1. leveraging every inch / ounce of her life story to make a trip on her something special, hell I’d even by donating $xx dollars from every ticket to the local RSA etc etc.
2. The other thing I would be doing was making her look as classic as possible – that’s her X-factor – the tourist’s would be telling people “I went for a very laid back lake cruise on this amazing 1945 wooden  boat that used to help with the rehabilitation a returning WWII solders etc etc.

So what has someone done? bought a few sheets of plywood & put a top hamper on her. Well it is their boat & they can do what they like (see Cameron P – I’m softening) – I’m sure the attraction of getting a few more paying passengers aboard won them over. But in my eyes they have knocked $25+k off her sale price & halved the visual / emotive appeal of the charter business.
If I was a few years older I’d buy her & borrow Mr Prew’s tungsten tipped chainsaw 😉 & go make a few bob on the Lake. Thanks to Ian McDonald for the heads up on the boat.

Have a look below at the photo of her back in the 1940’s, what she looked like in 2015 & as she appears today on treadme. As they say “different strokes for different blokes” – Its still a good buy for a 32′ motor launch – But not me.

 

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1940’s

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2015

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2017

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